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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Luke McLaughlin

Rugby World Cup has no plans to change ‘awful’ national anthem arrangements

The France team line up for their anthem before facing New Zealand
The France team line up for their anthem before facing New Zealand but they appeared out of sync with the young choir. Photograph: David Ramos/World Rugby/Getty Images

The renditions of the national anthems on the opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup have attracted widespread criticism, but the Guardian understands organisers have no plans to change the arrangements sung by children’s choirs.

La Marseillaise at Stade de France before France’s showdown against the All Blacks, in the first match of the seven-week tournament last Friday night, was a distinctly confused affair in which the home nation’s players appeared to be badly out of sync – and even out of tune – with the schoolchildren singing along with them in the stadium in Saint-Denis.

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